March 31, 2011 // 12:06 am - Keeping in line with the latest PS3 Linux Dual-Booting work from PlayStation 3 developer Graf Chokolo, today Kmeaw has stated the following to Dukio on his upcoming 3.55 PS3 Custom Firmware update, to quote:

"We haven't heard from Kmeaw for quite some time, so I managed to get a hold of him and it seems he might bring us another interesting release that should comes in the form of CFW. No, it's not 3.60 CFW, if you still don't get it.

I was thinking of a CFW that has bootOS integrated so it gets executed when you power on your PS3 (and switches back to GameOS on user's request via menu or ssh). It's not hard to make it. But recently I read graf's announcment that he is going to accomplish the same task. So I don't know, if such CFW from me would get any demand.

Also I got bootos-installer and lv2patcher patches from an anonymous hacker who have added 3.15/3.41 support. I'm going to merge them into my code and release the next version.

If you have any ideas about what would you like to have, please tell me."

I would suggest: NTFS support!!! Also you can add the internet TV channel already available trough programs from the scene and even Crackle Video Streaming Service and the others already avaliable from Sony.

This is not as simple as it seems - first of all the FW is not only on the hard drive but also in the flash rom and simple "dual boot" woudl not resolve this. Also - even if it would be possible to multiboot like that it would most probably end up anyway as two more or less separate systems - e.g. without sharing the PS3 / PSN accounts so in effect like having 2 individual PS3s anyway without (direct) option to share content, trophies, game saves etc.

Yeah I thought about that as well after posting, they would/should definitely be separate. Not only from the technical limitations, but to protect the user from being banned off the PSN as well. Because upon connecting to the PSN Sony would know what programs are on the system, and if there was any homebrew on the updated FW boot, the risk of getting banned would be great.

Although I'm sure if this was done Sony would quickly patch in a fix or do something to sabotage the CFW boot so the user would get stuck in the current FW as soon as they upgraded again. Or at the very least Sony would modify their next FW to poke into the other partitions of the PS3 to search for CFW/homebrew so they could ban the user off the PSN.

However I would like to see a dual-boot CFW that allowed for different firmware installations (if this is possible). Example, boot #1 has the 3.55 CFW, while boot #2 has the latest FW and is PSN capable.

This is not as simple as it seems - first of all the FW is not only on the hard drive but also in the flash rom and simple "dual boot" woudl not resolve this. Also - even if it would be possible to multiboot like that it would most probably end up anyway as two more or less separate systems - e.g. without sharing the PS3 / PSN accounts so in effect like having 2 individual PS3s anyway without (direct) option to share content, trophies, game saves etc.

I was never a user of OtherOS on any of my PS3's, never had the need since my computer does everything I need it to.

However I would like to see a dual-boot CFW that allowed for different firmware installations (if this is possible). Example, boot #1 has the 3.55 CFW, while boot #2 has the latest FW and is PSN capable. I personally think this would have the highest demand, because not all of us have separate PS3's for CFW and PSN (I do, but I still would like to have the extra option for ease of use and perhaps trophy integration between consoles).

Have no idea if this would ever be possible, but it's something that I personally would like to see in a dual-boot. Heck, why not partition off 3 sections, one for OtherOS support, one for CFW and one for PSN. That would be one heck of a CFW package!